I just stopped looking at Twitter, which I find increasingly toxic, and gave BlueSky a try.
Bluesky is vastly calmer, more pleasant, friendlier, and more interesting than Twitter. I see INaturalist has an account on Bsky, but has yet to post anything.
At the very least, INat’s social media team should post everything it tweets on Bluesky.
INat is all about science, friendly discussion, care for the environment, engagement with nature, and collective action.
X is increasingly shrill, intemperate, and negative. It has its place, but I think INat and its users will find a much more sympathetic community on BlueSky.
Full disclosure: I have no personal or financial connection to either company.
I just think one is way better than the other, and think most on here will agree.
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That’s why I stay here, this is my social media.
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Totally agree! Among its many virtues, INaturalist is the best social network.
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I would prefer Mastodon because it isn’t controlled by a company. But Bluesky is certainly better than X (for now).
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I’m on there at slowwatermovement. like i was saying in another post, i like new communities and twitter and other social media stopped being right for me too. But i suspect once bluesky gets huge it’ll get not right for me too. I mostly just talk about weather and autism stuff on there though. On the plus side i have far fewer taxonomy rants.
I liked twitter pre-Elon though it was already starting to get bad before he infested it. It was super important to me sorting out my neurodiverence . But now it’s awful. I didn’t delete my account but i don’t use it any more.
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Honest question here: what does an X or Bluesky or Mastodon provide to iNatters that this forum does not? I’ve never used X or its counterparts/competitors so the usefulness of these social media platforms is kind of a mystery to me. I know there are followers of individuals so maybe it’s more personal and chattier?
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Great question! I see social media as a place to promote INat and to draw new users in.
A secondary benefit is that I’m curious to see who likes and follows INaturalist on those platforms because it leads me to people and organizations that share my interests.
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I’ve never had Twitter, Facebook, Instagram… none of those. But a few weeks ago, I made a bluesky account. I don’t post, I don’t comment, I don’t use my name. I just lurk… because I could find a few accounts that exclusively post pictures of wildlife. And some cats. I don’t need any more socialization than the good stuff I get here on iNat, and I’m not interested in news or commentary… but you can’t get too many nice pictures of animals. 
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I agree with other commenters. iNaturalist is my social media, along with eBird. It’s a much more pleasant way to waste time on the internet.
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iNaturalist is the only social media for me.
I remember Twitter being very toxic long before it was bought and renamed. I heard the original creators of Twitter are who made Bluesky so I have no faith their website will be any better. Bluesky is destined to follow in the footsteps of Twitter as it gets more users.
The best websites you can find are completely neutral places such as iNaturalist where people are here because they have a common interest in nature. There isn’t any political agendas going on to divide people on iNaturalist, unlike what’s happening on pretty much every other social media website. iNaturalist on the other hand is about nature, organisms and learning about the natural world, which in my opinion makes it so great. There is nothing here to really bring out the worst in people, like what happens on other social media websites.
I don’t think Bluesky or Twitter are any better than one another. They were made by the same people, to attract the same people. I will be giving it a wide birth, just like I gave twitter a wide birth.
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No argument here. INat is the best. I’m thinking of other social media platforms as places to promote INaturalist and bring in new users.
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I totally agree about the virtues of INat and the vices of other platforms.
But INaturalist has a pretty strong presence on X and the others. It has 125k followers in Instagram, for instance.
I suspect that social media presence is part of INaturalist’s growth strategy, and is one reason why a million new users signed up over the past year.
All the other platforms have problems, but BlueSky is less bad than the others in my view, and could be a good place to find new takers for all that INat has to offer.
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I suppose I’m not very good at evangelizing for iNat and really don’t want to push it if someone’s not interested. I have promoted its benefits to friends and family who photo organisms, but with mixed results. They enjoy nature in their own way and that’s fine. But I’m happy to assist someone if they genuinely want to participate in the website.
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One factor that you probably like about the iNat Forum is the strict moderation. It keeps people focused on the topic of nature observations, and it doesn’t allow for personal attacks, or for going off on tangents.
Although we have discussed some Facebook groups that are even MORE strict, where you can have your post deleted, and you might even get banned for daring to speak the i word!
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/i-was-banned-from-a-popular-fb-group-for-mentioning-inat/
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Agreed! Moderation is key. I think moderation may be part of the reason Bluesky is less horrible than X, and hence a better place to reach out to potential new users of INaturalist.
Me too. I was active on Twitter from 2016-2018 and then finally deleted any account I still had when Musk took over.
I was in the writing community back then and that was actually kinda pleasant. I still remember someone organising a Twitter-Quiz every week that I really enjoyed. But then everything just kinda went sour at some point?
Since then I haven’t had any good experiences on any social media site.
I think it provides a more casual place to talk and to get to know people outside of their passion for nature.
While this forum is great and I enjoy being on here a lot, I sometimes find it very limiting (which it is by design) because it is focused on nature exclusively. There’s no sharing of other interesting stuff I like, no ranting about my noisy neighbour (okay, I guess, that one is a positive…)
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I agree with all of this. Twitter used to be useful and informative, if annoying. Now it’s repulsive. Bluesky is kind of like what twitter was. Your description of the utility of other networks is spot-on.
Yes, me too. iNat the best social media. No toxicity.
Maybe an argument here and there and some occasional rude people. That’s nothing compared to regular social medi. This is probably the safest too.
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just read that on Facebook (glad we don’t live on THAT street, but)
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